Lenovo ThinkPad X230 Review: Blasphemy

Introduction and Design

Change is hard. The Internet, for all of its talk about openness and cultural advancement, seems to have crystalized this more than any other form of communication. If something popular is changed, for better or worse, it’s only a matter of time before the virtual pitchforks are brought out.

Laptop manufacturers usually dodge this bullet because they change designs before they have a chance to gain a following. It’s hard for fans to become mad about a new design if the old one wasn’t used long enough to create an expectation. But there’s always been on exception – Lenovo’s ThinkPad.

Though this line of matte-black business laptops has been expanded over the years with the ThinkPad Edge the core of the line-up has remained stubbornly similar. The ThinkPad T420 I reviewed earlier this year was strikingly similar to the T42 that I owned in college. Yes, the display’s aspect ratio had changed, but the keyboard, trackpointer and overall design aesthetic was familiar.

I wasn’t surprised to see Lenovo’s announcement that it would be changing the keyboard on its new ThinkPad laptops send waves through the enthusiast community. Now Lenovo has sent the X230, one of the re-designed models, and I can see if this change is blasphemy or a new revelation.

Oh, and the hardware’s different, as well. Ivy Bridge, blah blah blah, Intel HD 4000, blah blah blah. You’re likely familiar with this tune – but you may be surprised to hear it played on an instrument this small.

The X230 may be small, but it does not use an Intel low-voltage process. Instead, this tiny wonder uses the same Core i5 you’d find in any other standard laptop. It’ll be interesting to see how this ultraportable performs relative to the Ivy Bridge reference ultrabook.

Design

Lenovo may have changed the keyboard but, in all other respects, the X230 is not a departure from traditional ThinkPad aesthetics. It’s a matte black slab with no ornamentation besides a small chrome Lenovo logo on the lid and another small matte-silver ThinkPad logo opposite.

Though smaller and lighter than most laptops on the market, including many ultrabooks, the X230 does not take part in the thin-wedge fad that has taken over the market. It’s a blocky piece of kit that’s about as thick at the front as at the rear, though the first inch of the chassis does taper slightly to provide the user’s hand a place to grip the laptop when it’s laying on a flat surface. Even the standard six-cell battery, which we received with our review unit, bulges slightly from the bottom of the laptop. The larger nine-cell also extends from the rear.

I was somewhat disappointed to find that the X230 does not include a latch (the T420 did) but the X220 also lacked this feature. This minor quibble aside, build quality is what users have come to expect from the brand. The chassis does not flex, the display is among the most rigid available and the hinges keep the display firmly in whatever position you place it (which also makes the laptop hard to open with one hand).

Connectivity includes two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, MiniDisplayPort, VGA and both card reader and ExpressCard slots. This is an excellent array of options for a laptop of this size.

will have the time to play games? But what about the laptops OpenCL and heavy business number crunching that OpenCL is made to deal with? Are there any spreadsheet benchmarks that can be helped with OpenCL? This is a business laptop that needs business benchmarks! How is Intel doing with their OpenCL, Thats what I want to know!
How 'bout those OpenGL and OpenCL drivers will I have to get them form Intel or are they customizied Intel drivers that I will have to get from Lenovo? Load that puppy up with 64 Gig USB thumb drives and transfer some 40 gig data bases to them, yes fill all the USB ports and jam as much data through them as you can, and tell me how much time I have to twiddle my thumbs waiting! OH and do not forget, to test those other slots Too! Come on, I would love to see anyone on any "Tech" site really put a laptop through its' paces!

I'd love to see some more benchmarks too, but gaming on these kinda things isn't unheard of (and it is a decent way to get an idea of the power of the Intel 4000). Latitudes and Thinkpads have a decent presence on campuses (we treat our computers rough. Reliable, reparable, and a decent set of hinges matters here), and students don't mind the ability to play a little Civ V or TF2 if they get the time. From experience, nVidia NVS drivers feel a little funny compared to their GeForce counterparts, but the T420/T520 (and Dell equivalent) don't fall apart entirely when taken to unfamiliar territory.

MORE and MORE testing should be done! USB (Ultra Bombastic Scam) testing USB on laptops should the most often benchmarked! On laptops with USB 3.0 testing should include thumb drives from the cheepest to the most expensave thumb drives out there, and of course testing USB 2.0 thumb drives in USB 3.0 ports should always be done, you would be suprised at how terrable some laptops USB 3.0 drivers fare with USB 2.0 devices! I am sure PCPER has a box full of USB thumb drives, pull them out and test every laptop that comes through your doors! If you review a laptop you should at least test all the I/O slots Express card, SATA, etc. Put different hard drives in the laptop and run benchmarks, let the reader know how much the laptop drives and memory can be upgraded and put the Laptop OEM's hardware drivers through some complete testing, some laptops' hardware drivers perform like crap! Last, Get a complete hardware data sheet from the OEM and list it always, readers would like to know the motherboard and chipset info for laptops as much as gamers want to know the info for the gaming rigs!

Laptop USB3 is typically the same as desktop USB3
Same IC and same drivers.

Some addon expresscard adapters are not designed well and like to use extra power using a usb cable.

NEC USB3 in Ultrabook and Intel USB3 no problems, except that sleep-n-charge is usually not supprted on the third party, even though the hw can support it. Too complicated supporting two hardwares with the one control utility.

The lower gaming performance for this laptop vs the Asus NV56M is almost certainly due to the fact that this laptop is only equipped with a single 4GB dimm - in effect running in single channel mode vs dual channel halves the memory bandwidth. Any games that are memory bandwidth intensive will get hammered as a result.

Memo to everyone: if you are buying a laptop with Intel processor graphics or an AMD APU and you intend to do any gaming or other graphics intensive work (CAD, GPGPU, etc), make sure that the system is running dual channel mode (e.g. configured with 2 dimms).

Ryan highlighted the benefit of faster RAM in a very recent podcast and thats exactly right, the scenarios where RAM speed is more visible, both channels/aggregate bandwidth and higher clockspeed ram giving greater total bandwidth is Integrated GFX and thats where its most easily tested.

In the case Ryan was describing he was talking about AMD's APU and 1866 was cheap enough to use for this purpose.

I recall a Kingston HyperX 1866 SO-DIMM review on another site where the increase from generic 'OEM" 1333 to these performance models was remarkable especially in heavy benchmarks such as HAWX2 and other typical benchmark suite titles.

Hay! Intel Jeff Frizzell, why does Intel let OEM's customize the Intel HD graphics drivers on their laptops, and why do some laptop OEM's never ever update these customized Intel HD graphics drivers? I have a Toshiba laptop that is useless to me without the ability to get updated Intel grnaric HD graphics dirvers for the Intel HD GPU on the laptop! How 'bout Intel take ownership of this process and require Laptop OEMs to at least offer updates as often as Intel does with the Intel genaric HD graphics drivers. Better yet STOP allowing laptop OEMs from customizing the drivers That Intel should be responsable for in the first place!

First, let me say that I totally get what you are saying - as an end user, you want to be able to take advantage of driver updates from Intel as Intel continues to roll out new features, bug fixes, performance improvements. In essence, this adds "future proofing" to your purchase.

Now lets look from the OEM perspective: They get paid once when you buy the system. That's it. The OEMs validate the software image (drivers, apps, etc) when they roll out a new model to verify that all the software works together. They are worried that if an end user installs some random driver and that happens to not work (or prevents the laptop from going to standby on lid close...), then they (the OEM) will get support calls for a configuration they have no data about. Call centers are expensive - OEMs operate on very thin margins so one support call may make the difference between a profit vs loss for that laptop sale. Ok, so they could revalidate with new drivers from time to time - but that adds cost too.

So they ask Intel for an ability to have you only get drivers from the OEM site which lets them control their QA cost and call center exposure. Note that this isn't just an issue with Intel graphics - some OEMs do the same with AMD and NVidia.

I don't like it but I understand their need to protect their business model. I work in graphics and, believe me, this is something I definitely am pushing to see improved.

You can help by letting them know that you will factor ability to get ongoing driver upates through the OEM or directly from Intel as a factor in your purchasing decisions (e.g. which brand you would choose OR whether you would pay a premium to have ongoing driver support OR whether you would agree that you wouldn't call their support line if you installed custom driver...). If enough customers say this then maybe some brave OEM will take the lead and the others will follow?

I hope pcper is reading your reply, as laptop OEM's should be rated on service after the sale. Any review of a laptop should include information on The Intel Graphics drivers, are they OEM customized or are are they Intel GENARIC HD graphics drivers! The Toshiba C655 laptop that I own is starting to become more unuseable! Not only have I been unable to get Intel HD graphics driver updates from The OEM, but also, The Toshiba VALUE added package, which controls my wifi has started to falter after the last few windows updates! It would help On the Intel side if Intel could maintain a list of laptop makes and models that utilize Intel Genaric HD graphics Drivers, so the laptop buyer could at least see if the laptop they are about to purchase IS on the Intel Genaric Graphics Drivers List!
Better Yet, Intel should create a graphics driver framework that the OEM's could use that could be updated without the
OEM's having to write any new code. This framework should be cross platform and maintained by Intel.

I should clarify - the "OEM customized" drivers are not different code. They are the exact same binaries as the Intel generic ones.

The only differences are in some of the installer files (.inf, etc):
1) the OEMs can customize some settings to tweak defaults or disable features that their platform doesn't support;
2) since laptop LVDS panels don't have EDID information, the OEMs can provide the equivalent about the panel they are integrating to let the driver control it more effectively;
3) the vendor id/device id string is extended to include an OEM id/model to flag this as an OEM customized driver.

Have disk would just detect the matching SUBSYSID though unless the INF is modified or the INF presents multiple choices being a generic device or a OEM targeted device with a SUBSYS ID

LVDS not haveing an EDID - you have answered a question I have been rying to find an answer for for a while on why LCD panel vendors insist to 'match the LCD to your old one' when replacing panels, despite said chassis offering multple specification of screen. However I can get panel data using common tools such as AIDA64 is that not reading the EDID via DDC or whatever that other channel was called.

The buttons/cards app controls your wifi. Windows updates should have nothing to do with affecting it. Use the latest version from toshiba

The end user does not need to know if a laptop uses generic drivers or not. Driver should be supported by the OEM for the product life of the notebook.

The only time the driver becomes relevant is when Intel releases a major update that addresses game performance which is infrequently and not really the realm of a laptop or if the user hangs onto a laptop for a while and upgrades the os to a newer version.

This is a misconception pushed by some.
messing with drivers is too much of a pain on a laptop and one is better off at the end of the day sticking with the officially supported versions.

Fortunately Lenovo Thinkpad has great driver support especially for things like WiFi which are quite recent builds.They even update the MANUALS for the older units such as T61 post EOL and the BIOS are not that old.

Where things go wrong with drivers is at the chipset/product EOL.

For example some older chips such as 965, 4 series no longer recive driver updates. Although I mandate latest drivers and firmware If I am honest there is not much drivers can do for those older GPUSs anyway.

Intels GPU driver relesae schedule is sometimes patchy and even when a build is released it may be targeted at only tnew newest product rather than compatible products such as Ivy Bridge V Sandy Bridge GPU drivers.

There never will be a reference graphics driver for any notebook with a lid or motion sensors, unless EVERYONE agrees on a common standard, being the platform,graphics, os people, VESA, DISPLAYPORT,USB-IF and whoever else has their toes in the water.

NVIDIA and AMD are trying and even they have not got it licked. Theres also legal aspects to consider OEMs only want to support their own validated code as they sell product to mission critical purposes or large enterprise/govt users.

I looked for the latest verson for my make and model, Toshiba appears to have written them for the Vista time frame, and If the software worked under Win 7 , well Toshiba was fine with that. Toshiba does not appear to be updating their Value Added Package software for my computer, they will probably be forced to update more for Windows 8. I am thinking of converting the Toshiba Laptop to Linux and using it as a file server! I am sure that I will never buy another Toshiba Laptop again! Hell 2 years after I purchased the Toshiba Laptop The extra Wifi software that useually comes with new Toshiba Laptops finally was made available for my Satellite C655 series toshiba laptop, 2 years too late!

I have 2 other laptops, I want to use the C655's First generation Core i3 porcessor for a file server, I just have to replace the fast ethernet card with a gigabit ethernet card and put linux on it, then and RAID some cheep 64 gig thumb drives on 2 4 port usb hubs, 1 hub for each of the toshiba's usb ports, Take out the optical drive and replace it with a hard drive! Windows will not allow cheep thumb drives to be configured into a RAID, but Linux will. I can have a cheep file server with 2 hard drives and 2 solid state drives (Hopefully I can get 20 MBs writes from 4 thumb drives in a RAID configuration).

If Toshiba Sells laptops To the government, then Toshiba needs to Do What IBM and the other Large Scale Computing COs have be doing for generations Set up a Government division and Bill for the driver updates, Use the Government $$ to keep the drivers updated and supply the consumer division with the most up to date drivers!

Lenovo seems to have Big Blue's mainframe philosophy when it comes to laptops. The big mainframe companies IBM, BURROUGHS(gone/merged), UNIVAC(gone/merged) had great documentation Hardware and Software(operating systems).
They had plenty of SYSTEM SOFTWARE manuals written in a cogent and organizied manner ( Microsoft none of that IBM Excellent documentation philosophy rubbed off on You, DID IT!). I wish Microsoft would have some of IBM's technical writers untangle the tangled mess that is your "knowledge" base!

I would like everyone reading this article to try to create a Wikipedia entry for their current make and model of laptop! My reason for asking this is The Laptop OEM's documentation is gitting worse as each new model year passes. More new laptops are being sold with incomplete manfactures' data sheets than ever before. The retailers are trying to hide as much information as possable from the buying public. Have you ever tried to query the system information from a display laptop lately? Not an easy task.
Have you ever tried to Go to the Intel website, while using that display model laptop! You need administrative privileges to install the components from Intel that will tell you if your Intel HD graphics drivers are GENARIC are not! I have 3 laptops and only one uses Intel genaric HD graphics drivers. One of those laptops will never get the needed updates from the OEM!

Hay! I have an AUSU U56E I got at Best Buy, The letters have worn of the 4 of the Keys, You will never see that on a think pad. Good laptop otherwise, the ASUS but, I had to hound them for 2 Mo. Just to get Asus to give me the System Specs. Be careful of the laptops you get from Best Buy, some of them are special orders form the Laptop's OEMs and ASUS should not have released That U56E for sell without first having proper documentation published first! What I miss the most on the newer laptops is the lack of a WiFI hardware button, to turn the WIFI ANT. off. My newest laptop, a Samsung Series 3 software switch does not keep the wifi ant. off, even though I have it switched off in the software. It takes about 60 sec after the computer has started before the software, that controlls my WIFI, to start
and realise that the wifi should be off, and sometimes if I am at a location where I previously have logged on to the wifi My computer will auto-login for me (this I do not Like) and is a security concern! I have to constently monitor this laptop to make sure I have the Do Not Auto- login checkbox checked, and I wish that the default setting could be made to never auto-login!

My X220 was a dreadful, and expensive mistake. Milspec is a joke, like the matt black paint which is more rub-off than it is rubberised. The "rugged" magnesium alloy chassis split on one side within three months, because it couldn't handle the pressure of my hands on the palmrest whilst typing. No my arms are not overweight, and even if they were it wouldn't warrant the way Lenovo support shrugged off the fault as "damage not covered by warranty". With a month left on my warranty my laptop has since developed display ghosting (my screen is the premium IPS option) and a faulty hard drive. My keyboard is starting to rattle loose at the bottom right corner. All in all, my x220 has been more of a frail rickety contraption to be handled with apprehension and care than the "road warrior" Lenovo sold to me.

My x220 has been the best computer purchase I've made. I haven't had a problem with its build quality and I've in no way been treating it nice or with care. To put it in perspective, every other laptop I've owned has literally fallen apart withing a year of me buying it.

You men must see X240 - it has no harware buttons for pointstick and metal hinge is about 2cm in big plastic case - its like buble gum when open/close lid and no leds for everything - like acer or asus - NO THINKPADS after X230 :((((